NM State Aggies vs UIC Flames Baseball 2-19-22

Yesterday’s Opening Day’s weather wasn’t bad, but certainly this Saturday was even better.  Once again, it was clear.  The temperature was probably in the high 60’s with a cool breeze.  Driving in with Ron, I got a better look at the facilities.  The structure next to the visitor’s dugout was an open-air batting cage.  Ron said they took out the auxiliary bleachers there.  Ron said the large open-air batting facility next to home dugout was actually finished.  I’d thought when they announced it, it was going to be an indoor facility.  Today, I noticed that there were large fans hanging from the ceiling and hanging lights.  There was also a seemingly unnecessary catwalk overlooking the cages.  Hmm.  You could see the field from them.  Maybe they should expand it and make it a party deck.

 

A couple of visiting teams were playing softball next door.  Aggie Softball was off today.  At the same time, the Women’s Basketball team was playing at the Pan Am Center.  Ron with his Aggie Country Pass was cursing this cross-scheduling.  I was cursing that the basketball game was taking my favorite Sports Marketer, Emerson, away from me this afternoon. 

 

On field, I was startled that the Aggies were wearing white hats.  I’d never seen them in that color before.  I saw some fans today wearing them.  The Sports Accessories trailer was again doing good business by the grandstand.  Maybe they were selling them.  I noticed two Aggie players hitting each other on the chest to get pumped up after warming up.  About half the team, knelt in a prayer circle afterward.  Once again, the Anthem seemed to catch everyone on field off guard.  Ron reported that James Harris on the UIC Flames knelt for it.  Possibly not coincidentally, he was the only black player I saw on either team.

 

A great crowd came for the game.  Yesterday was really good at over 700.  Today was over 800.  (The grandstand’s capacity is 1,000.)  The girl with the bob haircut did not return.  I was going to try to sketch her there.  There was a spectacular girl with long blonde hair on the other side of the stadium.  She had to definitely be a player girlfriend.  On the other side of the stadium, there were a couple of attractive enemy fans as well.        

Today’s scorecards worked out a bit better than yesterday.  I took a pregame bathroom break later than I meant to and missed the PA lineup announcement (and getting popcorn).  There was a fill-in radio broadcaster today with Adam Young doing basketball.  His name was Anthony, but I missed his last name.  I also managed to miss him doing the lineups, but I still managed to get everyone listed during the game. 

 Cal Kilgore started as catcher today for the Aggies.  He’d had a rough day yesterday in only one inning of work.  Kudos to Coach Kirby for putting him back in the next day.  Cal Villareal was also starting after his clutch pinch hit yesterday.  Sammy Natera was our starting pitcher.  His family was sitting right below us wearing jackets with his name on them.  Zerek Saenz’s family was likewise in very cool-looking jersey’s with his name on them.  Natera struck out two in a 1-2-3 inning.  I finally cracked yesterday’s mystery to opposing players getting walkup music.  The PA was playing music after strikeouts.  The song choices were curious, but later in the game, they fell back on the standard, Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye one.

 

Since I didn’t get popcorn, I was now smelling it behind me.  I was also occasionally smelling very strong BO, along with beer and vinegar.  I was getting that vinegar smell at Softball last week.  Is it those big pickles they sell?  Tyler Ingram started for the Flames and also worked a quick inning.  That’s going to be a theme today. 

 

Natera struck out the side in the second.  Even early on with the pitchers dominating, the crowd and the broadcaster were questioning the umpire’s strike zone.  Meanwhile, I was amused by a nearby toddler kid playing with a baby.  Preston Godfrey led off with a hit in the bottom, but was thrown out trying to take second on a pitch in the turf.  The next two batters struck out.  The UIC fans got jacked up on that final out.

 

Natera made a great jump play on a comebacker to start the third.  He gave up a double next that seemed to be ticketed to go over the wall, but was hit to the deepest part of the park.  The UIC dugout got vocal, but Natera shut that down with two more strikeouts.  Between innings, the Pocket contest came up.  The items were a lanyard, a penny, and a can of Pistol Pete ale.  Strangely, the beer was the only item nobody admitted to having.  I saw people in the stands with them.  A girl below us was happy to claim the leftover prize.  Three Flame fielders made a campfire around a high popup, but that leadoff single for the Aggies in the bottom was left stranded.

 

In the top of the fourth, Natera got Kevin Jimenez into the action, as KJ made two plays at second.  Both involved running to his right and throwing to his left.  On the second play, he did it with a jump throw.  Shadows of squadrons of birds in formation crossed over the field.  It was like we were at Shea Stadium in La Guardia’s flight path, but more quiet.  There was another 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth.  The last strikeout was looking and got a roar out of the UIC fans.

 

In the fifth, there was an error on first baseman, AJ Garcia, as he waved off Natera on an infield popup that dropped in.  The runner stole second afterward.  KJ made a great catch on a shot just over the infield and nearly doubled off the runner at first.  Oh, and Natera started and finished the inning with strikeouts. 

 

Finally in the bottom of the fifth, Logan Galina, who’d struck out four times yesterday, led off with a home run.  The stadium erupted.  The ball went to left center on a low line.  It just kept carrying and cleared the wall.  I thought the left fielder was going to bring it back momentarily as he jumped at the wall.  Right after, Flames shortstop, Ryan Lin-Peistrup, made a great spin throw to nip Villareal at first and the UIC fans roared back.  After a walk, a double play ended the inning, but the Aggies were now up 1-0.

 

An older gentleman behind me asked me what the score was right after.  I found this curious as he was into the game and cheering along with it.  There was a big roar next door at softball as someone hit a home run.  I could see players trotting around the bases.  The second Flames batter of the sixth, Bryan Rosario, was declared hit by the ump and awarded first.  It was a little odd, because the catcher was the one who reacted to being hit.  The umps conferenced and let the call stand. 

 

Rosario stole second and took third on an overthrow by Kilgore.  Coach Kirby and the catcher argued that the batter got in the way.  (Tip: always throw into the player in that situation, that’s what makes it interference.)  Natera didn’t care and struck out two more.  Kilgore flipped the ball in anger afterward.  The ump immediately told him to cool it, but the bad blood (compounded by the wavering strikezone) was already flowing.  The bottom of the sixth went 1-2-3 for Aggie hitting.  Still, Ingram was unhappy with not getting a call and displayed his displeasure.  After the inning, the ump had a quick talk with him, too. 

 

Top of the seventh, Kilgore, likely at the insistence of his coach, patched things with the ump before play resumed.  Natera had two more strikeouts in his final inning for a total of 14.  In the middle of those K’s, KJ had the defensive play of the day.  He laid out to snow cone catch a line drive.  Due to the quickness of these innings, both the Aggies and Flames coaches delayed the game to chat with their third batter of the inning, likely to give their pitchers more time to warm up.

 

Pablo Cortes took over for Natera in the top of the eighth and worked a quick inning, notching a couple more strikeouts.  On the first batter, Garcia knocked down a grounder that rolled away from him to KJ.  Garcia scrambled back to the bag in time to receive the throw and get the runner.  By this point I admit, I was really kind of cheering on a cessation in scoring.  Anthony was doing a good job on the radio call, but if Adam were here, I’m pretty sure he’d be going through the record book trying to see if there’d ever been a 1-0 game at Presley Askew Field.  I wanted to be able to say, “I was there.”

 

I was disappointed, but in the best way.  Ryan Grabosch had come in to catch and batted second in the inning and singled.  Gunner Antillon followed and doubled to left field.  Grabosch chugged around third and was waved home.  He reached out and touched the plate just under the tag.  The ump paused for a dramatic second before ruling him safe.  But it wasn’t over.  The Aggies went on to score four more runs.  (Of note, Cory Moore at first did make an all-out diving effort on a foul ball trying to stop the bleeding.)  Flames pitcher Joey Morris was finally relieved by Matt Zohora, who got the final out as the Aggies batted around.  Did the Flames coach go out for a beer or something during the inning?  I nearly went to the mound take Morris out myself. 

 

With a 6-1 lead in the top of the ninth, the drama and weirdness still wasn’t over.  Cortes struck out the first batter.  Grobosch made a great effort to get a foul popup and slid into the turf.  He came up smiling.  Then the weirdness started.  KJ caught a very high popup at second . . . and then dropped it.  He looked in disbelief at the ball on the ground.  We all did.  Perhaps trying to make up for not taking out his pitcher, the Flames coach pinch hit for the first six batters of the inning.  Cortes got a flyball out for the second out, but then lost all feel for the strikezone and walked the next two batters.  Then James Harris came up with his grass-stained knees and cleared the bases with a double.  6-3 Aggies.  Then it got even weirder. 

 

Cortes was left in and came back with his hardest stuff and struck out the next batter to end the game.  The Aggies celebrated on the field . . . as the home plate umpire waved the batter to first.  He claimed Gorbosch had dropped the ball and not thrown out the runner.  Gorbosch and Coach Kirby protested to no avail.  Cortes was left in to again get the final out.  The crowd had been loud before, but now they were hysterical.  The next batter was fighting the Cortes and the fans.  Cortes did not disappoint and notched another strikeout.  Gorbosch and the umpire exchanged words afterward, as the team and the crowd were celebrating.  Gorbosch got in the last word in that exchange.  Scoreboard: Aggies win 6-3.              

 

The game took two-and-a-half hours.  That’s almost unbelievable for a game at the Skew.  That should give you an idea of how quick all those 1-2-3 innings were.  Let’s hand out those gameballs.  Let’s see, Sammy Natera, 7 innings, 1 hit, 14 strikeouts.  That’s an easy one.  Logan Galina went 3 for 4 with a home run and 3 RBI’s, a day after striking out four times.  The pregame show the next day said that they’d made an adjustment to his swing.  Tyler Ingram for the Flames had a great effort today, going over 6 innings and only giving up 1 run.  James Harris should get one for his pinch hit 3-run double, but it also comes with my personal disapproval.   

 

I was not at the Sunday game as the Daytona 500 was being run that day.  I listened in on the radio instead.  After a disappointing meal at What-a-burger* dad and I were watching the race, and he asked me why I wasn’t at the game.  “Well, I can listen to the game, but I can’t watch the race at the game.”  “You probably made the wrong choice,” he commented.  He may have been right.  Much of the race was either single or double-file uncompetitive racing.  There were some spectacular wrecks and a dramatic ending, but I probably could have gone to the game and still watched half of the race.  Congrats to rookie, Austin Cindric, on his win and his enthusiastic postrace interview. 

 

(* Which is really rare.  They’re normally great.  This time they got the order wrong, but close enough.  The burgers and fries didn’t taste that great though, and their Dr. Pepper was inexcusably watered down.  Ron and I even had poor frozen custard at Caliches after the game Saturday, which is almost impossible.  I blame that we tried different sundaes than we usually have.)

 

As for the game, it was another pitcher’s duel.  It was 1-1 into the seventh.  Edwin Martinez-Pagani came in to pinch hit with two on and upon seeing his first pitch in D1 baseball smacked a no-doubt three-run homer.  I talked to Ron, who was there, and he reported that it went into the trees in right field.  Adam Young, on the radio, gave an incredible call of the homer.  Edwin did a huge bat flip and thumped his chest rounding the bases to the ire of the Flames.  They threw at the next batter in anger.

 

The Flames loaded the bases in the eighth, but the batter took a swing on a 3-0 count and made a flyout to end the inning.  Alex Bustamonte, who’d failed to record an out in Friday’s five-run inning, came in for the ninth and shut the door for a 4-1 win.  Ian Meija didn’t get the win, but did go 6 innings, only giving up a run.  Ron also reported that Zerek Saenz did not play.  I don’t know what that means.  He also didn’t see the girl with the bob haircut today.  Now, we’re both obsessed with her.   

 

Overall, this was a heck of a series win for the Aggies against a quality opponent.  After the last few years of video game-like hitting, their starting pitching may be their biggest strength this season.  I think the hitting will come around, but the team will only go as far as their pitching.  Ah, it’s good to have baseball back.